RIYADH: Arab National Bank (ANB) has announced a net profit of $380 million for the first half of 2008 compared to $365 million for the same period last year, representing an increase of 4.1 percent. Total operating income increased by 6 percent to $593 million in 2008 compared to $561 million for the same period last year, while total operating expenses increased by 9 percent to $213 million compared to $196 million for the same period last year. Profits of the second quarter of 2008 reached $201 million compared to $193 million for the same period last year.
The bank continued to maintain strong growth ratios where loans portfolio rose by 32 percent to $18.6 billion, while customer deposits grew by 32 percent to $22.6 billion, leading to increase of total assets to $29.4 billion and shareholders equity to $3.1 billion. The basic and fully diluted earnings per share reached $0.58 for the first half of 2008 compared to $0.56 for the same period last year after taking into consideration the increase in number of shares resulted from the increase in the capital.
Commenting on the results, Robert Eid, managing director, said that the bank continued to achieve good profits in the second quarter of this year, coupled with strong growth ratios in the loans, customer deposits and total bank assets, and such achievements reflect success of the bank’s strategy and development plans for growth and expansion with particular emphasis on retail banking, branch network and corporate banking.